Various types of trailer mechanisms for resting the hitch end of a trailer to permit uncoupling of the trailer and to store the trailer in a normal horizontal position have been previously used in the art. Such trailer jacks are typically permanently mounted vertically to a support member of the trailer frame near the hitch end. Trailer jacks typically have a crank handle which is rotated to raise and lower either a ground plate or a caster which contacts the ground thereby providing an adjustable rest for the trailer. To allow for sufficient mechanical advantage to lift the hitch end of a heavy trailer many revolutions of the handle are required to raise the rest end away from the ground into a position for transport. Raising the jack thus becomes a very slow and tedious job. Furthermore, due to the low mounting location of the jack and due to a limited amount of travel for the jack, the rest end of the jack cannot be raised sufficiently to avoid having the end impact with the ground when traveling on rough terrain. In an attempt to sufficiently raise the end during transport a long jack travel is required making the jack mechanism expensive and subject to wear and breakage.
One attempted solution to somewhat reduce the time required to raise the jack and to reduce the likelihood of damage to the jack during travel over rough terrain was the provision of a hinged caster. The arrangement, however, was down below and cumbersome to operate. Moreover, the gain of clearance height was limited to the height of the caster.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above by providing a rotatable support arrangement for the trailer jack which is easy to use, minimizes the time and effort to raise the jack rest end for transport and reduces the likelihood of damage to the rest end during transport.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description.